Many tools are available to assist cognitive development and stimulation. From colorful building blocks to complex computer software, these tools help to improve sensory responses and assist general mental development. A set of such tools was developed for children by Friedrich Froebel in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg Germany. His tools included special materials such as wooden bricks having many different shapes, wooden sticks of different sizes and yarn balls having different textures and colors. These tools can generally be used in constructive exercises such as stacking a set of bricks to form larger shapes and touching different balls of yarn to identify textures. Children practicing these constructive exercises can improve their sensory responses.
Many commonly available sensory and cognitive development tools are suboptimal in that they require the user to handle a large number of heavy objects to develop tactile senses and improve general cognitive function. For example, to demonstrate the variation of textures in the Froebel system, a number of separate objects are needed and these objects are generally required to be made from different materials. Thus, to implement a Froebel based system, a child would be required to obtain a number of separate sensory development tools, each having different textures. Such a solution often proves to be quite expensive, which could limit the child's access to varied textured developmental tools.
There is a need for improved textured surfaces, and methods of manufacture thereof, that can assist tactile development, shape recognition, color study, material discovery and other cognitive development processes.